Good morning, it’s the Friday of a LONG holiday weekend AND the unofficial start of summer.
If you have already started your festivities, well, good for you. Some of us work for a living. (I kid. I kid because I love and am not at all jealous. Happy for you! Really. I am.)
Programming note: There will be no Rise and Shine on Monday, Memorial Day. And as such, I will engage in the annual “remember that Memorial Day is an actual holiday with a purpose other than grilling and chilling and hanging in the sun” ritual now.
Memorial Day used to be known as “Decoration Day” in light of the tradition of festooning the graves of fallen soldiers with flowers, wreaths and flags.
It was first widely observed as Memorial Day on May 30, 1868 to commemorate the sacrifices of Civil War soldiers, following a proclamation by Gen. John A. Logan of the Grand Army of the Republic, an organization of former Union sailors and soldiers.
As an aside…Do not confuse Memorial Day with Veterans Day, though both are held to celebrate members of the Armed Forces.
Memorial Day is specifically held to honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country (in other words, were killed in or as a result of participating in battle).
Veterans Day came about considerably later – at the end of World War I – and is held to honor ALL service men and women, with an emphasis on those who are still with us and able to share their unique experiences.
Apparently, some 25 communities have been tied to the origins of Memorial Day. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs maintains that one of these events was held as far back as October 1864 in Boalsburg, Pennsylvania.
New York has the honor of being the first state to designate Memorial Day a legal holiday, which occurred in 1873. By the late 1800s, several other states had followed suit.
In 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law the Uniform Holiday Bill, packing several federal holidays into the tail end of three-day weekends. (The goal was to stimulate travel and boost the economy).
Memorial Day has been celebrated on the fourth Monday of May since 1971.
Several Southern states commemorate an additional, separate day (not the same day, generally speaking) to honor Confederate soldiers who died in the Civil War. This is colloquially known as Confederate Memorial Day.
Each year at Arlington National Cemetery, a ceremony is held, during which a small American flag is placed on each grave. It’s traditional for the president or vice president to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
There’s rain in the forecast today, (cloudy in the morning, thunderstorms in the afternoon/evening), but at least we’re getting it out of the way early in the weekend. Temperatures will be in the high 70s. More thunderstorms are on tap for Saturday, but Sunday and Monday are looking pretty good, thus far.
Have a safe and happy holiday!
In the headlines…
President Joe Biden continued pushing lawmakers to stand up and act on “commonsense” gun laws in the wake of the horrific tragedy in Uvalde, Texas, where a gunman killed 19 elementary school students, a teacher and another adult.
However, some in the gun control advocacy world are nervous and wondering why the most powerful man in the country isn’t adequately using the bully pulpit on such an emotionally wrought issue.
Biden and the first lady Jill Biden will travel to Uvalde on Sunday “to grieve with the community that lost twenty-one lives in the horrific elementary school shooting,” the White House said.
“The president and the first lady believe it is important to show their support for the community,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said. ”“We cannot become numb to this.”
The unspeakably sad Texas school shooting took another tragic turn as the husband of one of the teachers killed in Tuesday’s bloodbath has also died, his family said.
The horrifying Texas school massacre could have ended a lot sooner if clueless cops hadn’t dragged their feet and given the teenage gunman free reign in a barricaded classroom for nearly an hour, angry witnesses and parents said.
“They say they rushed in,” said Javier Cazares, whose fourth-grade daughter, Jacklyn Cazares, was killed in the attack, and who raced to the school as the massacre unfolded. “We didn’t see that.”
The 18-year-old gunman was not confronted by police before he entered the school, a Texas law enforcement official said, contradicting earlier comments from authorities and raising further questions about the police response to the massacre.
As parents began making funeral arrangements, criticism deepened in the majority-Hispanic ranching community of 15,200 over the protracted police response, and the failure of officials to adequately explain their actions.
The carnage has renewed a decades-old debate about how to end the horror of U.S. school shootings, with many Texas political leaders once again calling for heightened school security measures.
An explosive fight about WiFi between Salvador Ramos and his mother culminated with him moving out and in with his grandmother, who was shot minutes before the massacre, allegedly carried out by her grandson at Robb Elementary School.
More than 1,000 people from the grieving city of Uvalde leaned into their faith Wednesday evening as they gathered to listen to pastors offer messages of strength and salvation just 30 hours after the shooting.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott will travel to Uvalde for an afternoon news conference today, He had been scheduled to address a convention of the National Rifle Association. A spokeswoman said he would provide pre-recorded video remarks instead.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer described the ardently pro-gun Texas governor, Abbott, as an “absolute fraud” in an indignant speech from the Senate floor.
Democratic and Republican lawmakers opened talks on possible legislation to address mass shootings, with enhanced background checks and red-flag laws seen as potential areas of compromise following the Uvalde shooting.
A local TV station in Dallas cut off Jimmy Kimmel’s monologue about the Texas school shooting, leading to outcry from viewers and an apology from the station.
The Tampa Bay Rays and the New York Yankees baseball teams took the unusual step of turning their Twitter accounts over to disseminating facts about gun violence in the wake of the recent mass shootings in Buffalo and Uvalde, Texas.
Hundreds of students at Oxford High School in Michigan – the site of the most recent mass school shooting before Uvalde – walked out of school around lunch yesterday in support of the Texas community and stricter gun laws.
“American Pie” singer Don McLean canceled his scheduled gig at the NRA’s convention in Houston this weekend.
Lee Greenwood and other musicians also backed out of a scheduled concert at the National Rifle Association’s convention in Houston, citing the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas.
South Korean pop sensations BTS will be joining Biden at the White House on Tuesday, May 31, to celebrate AANHPI Heritage Month.
Selena Gomez and Biden are offering further insight into their recent White House meeting, where they discussed the importance of de-stigmatizing mental health.
Biden has nominated D.C. District Court Judge Florence Y. Pan to a seat in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. If confirmed, Pan would be the first Chinese American to serve on the influential D.C. Circuit.
David Kamin, one of the Biden administration’s most outspoken proponents for taxing the rich to finance the president’s economic agenda, is leaving the administration at the end of the week.
Applications for US unemployment insurance declined last week by more than forecast, underscoring a persistently tight labor market.
Initial unemployment claims decreased by 8,000 to 210,000 in the week ended May 21, Labor Department data showed. The median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of economists called for a drop to 215,000.
The total number of Americans collecting jobless benefits for the week ending May 14 rose slightly from the previous week, to 1,346,000. Last week that number stood at 1,315,000, the fewest since in more than five decades.
The White House announced more steps to make the antiviral treatment Paxlovid more accessible across the U.S. as it projects COVID-19 infections will continue to spread over the summer travel season.
An ongoing surge of reported COVID cases in the Northeast showed signs of easing even as cases continued to jump around the rest of the country.
As the use of Paxlovid to treat COVID-19 spreads, so too does confusion over its effectiveness and side effects.
Jeff Bridges is opening up about his serious bout with Covid, saying he came “pretty close to dying” and noting that “Covid made my cancer look like nothing.”
New data showing a surge in New York COVID cases triggered a jump in the city’s alert status and debate over how best to respond — but the actual number of infected people is likely significantly higher than official numbers show.
According to this year’s report by the Citizens Committee for Children called Keeping Track of New York City’s Children, 4,730 New York City children lost a parent or caregiver to COVID-19 from March 2020 through Dec. 2021.
Nine cases of monkeypox have been identified in seven states including New York, but all the infections are mild and none of them are life-threatening, U.S. health officials said.
Older people who received smallpox vaccinations may yet have some immunity against monkeypox, researchers say. Healthy children and adults generally do not become severely ill.
Gov. Kathy Hochul raised more than $10 million over the past four months as she seeks a full term in office, her campaign announced.
Andrew Giuliani holds a narrow lead over party-backed candidate Rep. Lee Zeldin ahead of the June 28 gubernatorial primary, according to a new poll of primary voters conducted by John Zogby.
New York State legislators are unlikely to renew 421-a, a tax-incentive program that has been used in nearly every big residential project in New York City for the last 50 years, in a significant blow to developers, the governor and the mayor.
Thirty percent of all land in New York could be conserved under a bill that passed the state Senate with an overwhelming majority earlier this week.
An organization representing dozens of not-for-profit nursing homes filed a lawsuit this week seeking to block the state from enforcing minimum staffing requirements, including rules requiring that each client receive at least 3.5 hours of direct care per day.
A New York law that could hold the gun industry accountable after their products are used in deadly shootings has been upheld by a federal judge — its first major legal hurdle, though it is likely to face appeals that could go all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Long Island GOP state Sen. John Brooks, who says he’s been shaken by the Uvalde massacre and urged by activists, colleagues of both parties, and lobbyists to try to return to Albany next year, has decided to jump back into the race for the 5th District.
The number of homeless people taken from the subways to shelters has more than tripled under Mayor Eric Adams’ crackdown on people who sleep on the transit system, city officials said.
A staffing shortage at the Big Apple’s biggest housing agency is slowing down plans to develop and build badly needed affordable apartments, which advocates charge is further compounding the city’s decades-long shortage.
Adams and police brass privately appealed to employees of the city’s Big Four accounting firms to support law enforcement in the wake of the random subway shooting that claimed the life of a Goldman Sachs employee on his way to brunch.
New York City offices could be half filled by September, the head of an influential business group said after a meeting with top business leaders convened by Adams yesterday afternoon.
“I need you to raise your voice. Everyone silently tells us to support the police. We cannot do this with a whisper,” Adams said at an event celebrating Jewish Heritage Month earlier this week. “This community knows how important law enforcement is.”
Adams and several members of Congress announced that the city is launching a bid to hold the 2024 Democratic National Convention in the Big Apple.
City Council members approved a “home rule request”, giving the state Legislature the go-ahead to pass a three-year extension and expansion of New York City’s speed camera program that allows them to operate 24/7.
The New York City Education Department will teach Asian-American history in all 1,600 public school to combat the “ignorance” and prejudice that fueled a COVID-19 surge in anti-Asian hate crimes, the agency announced.
Donald Trump and two of his adult kids must testify in New York Attorney General Letitia James’ civil investigation into the former president’s family real estate business, an appeals court ruled.
“Once again, the courts have ruled that Donald Trump must comply with our lawful investigation into his financial dealings,” AG Tish James said in a statement. “We will continue to follow the facts of this case and ensure that no one can evade the law.”
The judges unanimously rejected the former president’s appeal of an earlier ruling that ordered him and two of his adult children to testify in a civil investigation into his family business.
A Queens man was charged with being the ringleader of a multimillion-dollar scheme to sell stolen items online.
A federal jury returned a $3.25 million verdict in favor of two former State Police members who had filed a lawsuit alleging they were unfairly targeted in an evidence-handling scandal that derailed their careers.
Albany Medical Center fired a local community activist and two executives who helped hire her, less than a month after she joined the staff due to concerns about her political views and outspoken advocacy, according to a lawsuit filed in state Supreme Court.
The misdemeanor criminal case against Rodney G. Wiltshire, a former Troy City Council president and mayoral candidate, has been resolved and sealed, prosecutors and defense attorneys said.
City residents and property owners with a little extra cash lying around can take advantage of a new Albany County Land Bank Corporation program and snag a vacant lot for just $100.
A tanning salon war has heated up in the Capital Region with the takeover of a local company by a national chain, leaving a group of unemployed workers and dismayed customers in its wake.
Employees of Joseph’s House, a Troy homeless shelter and not-for-profit social service provider, are looking to unionize and are hoping their management allows that without going to a vote.
More than 40 years after Lake Placid last hosted a Winter Olympics, some New York lawmakers want to form a commission about bringing the games back to the North Country and potentially co-host it with another community.
As the world mourned the death of actor Ray Liotta, his “Field of Dreams” co-star Kevin Costner shared video of a memorable scene that seemed to have come from a higher power.
Liotta, a legendary character actor known for his career-defining performance in the crime classic “Goodfellas,” died in his sleep while filming a movie in the Dominican Republic. He was 67.
Andy Fletcher, a founding member of the electronic band Depeche Mode who was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with the group in 2020, has died at age 60. A cause of death was not released.
Carol Baldwin, 92, mom of the 64-year-old actor Alec Baldwin and his five siblings, has died in Syracuse, the same town where she was born and raised, went to college and met her husband.
Justin Timberlake, a 10-time Grammy Award-winning superstar, is the latest music artist to part ways with his music catalog, which was valued at just above $100 million.
Actor Kevin Spacey faces four counts of sexual assault against three men in the U.K., according to British prosecutors.
